Let Us Set Our Hearts, Our Inner Man, Upon Rebuilding The Temple Of The Lord

Today’s Word Of Encouragement From Wayne:

“Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘Consider your ways! Go up to the mountains, bring wood and rebuild the temple, that I may be pleased with it and be glorified,’ says the Lord” Haggai 1: 7-8 / “Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while this house lies desolate? Now therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘Consider your ways!”

Haggai 1: 4-5

Two times, in both of these passages we have looked at from the first chapter of Haggai, God emphatically said to His people “Consider your ways!” In our time together today, I’d like to share with you about the unusual combination of Hebrew words used in this word from God to His people, concerning the rebuilding of His house.

In the publisher’s notes of my bible, this phrase, “Consider your ways,” is marked with an editorial note saying “Literally - Set your heart on.” So this got me to looking up this word in my concordance, to see the precise meaning.

As it turns out, the word used for “Consider” in both of these verses is an unusual and rarely used combination of three distinct Hebrew words - “sim,” “lebab,” and “al.”

“Sim” is a prim root, meaning “to put, place, to set.” “Lebab” comes from an unused word, meaning “inner man, mind, will, heart.” “Al” comes from the prim root “alah”, meaning “to go up, ascend, climb.”

So, when God said “Consider your ways!” He was appealing to His people to - set their hearts, their inner man, upon ascending up to seeing and following God’s clearly expressed will in rebuilding His temple “that I may be pleased with it and be glorified.”

This is exactly what we need to see today, across the entire body of Christ, a true awakening to God’s will concerning His house, our priesthood to Him, and our loyalty to His Own dwelling place. In Jesus Christ we actually are new creations (2 Corinthians 5:17), so we are definitely equipped to set the focus of our inner man upon ascending upward to God’s purpose in our lives as His priesthood, ministering to Him in our own inner temples continually, and also coming together, as living stones, declaring to the entire body of Christ that this is our divine call in this day “being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood” (1st Peter 2:5).

May all of us in the body of Christ humbly “consider our ways!” And may we set our hearts, our new inner man, upon ascending, going up, climbing up to the will, the hill, the holy purpose of God’s house in this day to be “a spiritual house for a holy priesthood.” May we all minister as priests to our God and may we all gather together in the body of Christ as God’s kingdom of priests, honoring our “Lord” and “priest forever” (Psalm 110: 1&4), Jesus Christ, Who Himself, right now, is our High Priest.

Beloved child and priest of God, please do not hide the light of your priesthood under a bushel, for how are God’s people going to emerge from their darkness on this subject unless they see more and more Christians rising up to their own priesthood? It is time to take God’s church back - back to Jesus Christ, back to the truth of God Himself and His holy will for His holy church to be wholly dedicated to Him as His kingdom of priests, “being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood.”

If we will boldly affirm our King, covenant, and priesthood over the house of God, then Haggai’s promise form God will become true in this day for us, when He said, “‘The latter glory of this house will be greater than the former,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘and in this place I will give peace,’ declares the Lord of hosts’” (Haggai 2:9). Hallelujah!